Photograph
by XxLucaxX
Summary: Can Mitchell be forgiven? Is he truly and completely gone from the friends who helped him become and stay human?


Disclaimer: I do not own Being Human or any of the characters. Not a single ounce of it. I thought this scenario would be fun with these characters however.

George stood there with his arm around Nina as they looked at the painting. The baby was sleeping peacefully in Nina's arms. He couldn't be prouder or happier. His wife and baby safe and happy. Annie was strolling down the a little further in the gallery. It wasn't quiet perfect no…their other family member wasn't here. Mitchell. He wasn't here. Just thinking of how bored and possibly condescending Mitchell would be…here in this part of the museum any way. It was quiet amusing. Or maybe heart broken. Because he had been in battle with these men. He had been beside these men in this exhibit. He was gone, never to return now. George's face must of dropped because he heard Nina whisper his name softly and he saw her looking up at him endearingly. He just shook his head slightly.

Both of them jumped as Annie screamed for George and Nina excitedly. They looked at each other in shock and back at her, grateful no one else had heard it or could see her dancing around the glass case like a school girl who just got asked out by her crush. She was gesturing wildly. "GUYS! HURRY UP LOOK AT THIS!" They shrugged at each other and walked over to where their friend was acting foolish. "LOOK! IT'S HIM!" She said a little loudly pointing at the glass. George looked in knowing immediately who she meant not sure if he was ready or not. It was a single photograph of Mitchell standing there ready with his gun. It was one of those stiff military photographs that were taken for record. His name was below it 'John Mitchell'.

George looked up at Annie her eyes were dancing as tears ran down her face and a smile across her face. He felt his own hot tear escape his eye. He wiped it away quickly. They just stared at each other all three of them. A smile came to their faces…it was shy and slow…but deep and understanding on all levels. One could almost expect Mitchell to walk up behind them throw his arms around their shoulders saying "There you guys are I've been looking all over for you! I got caught up looking at an old friends work a couple of galleries back. What's this?"

"How old do you think he is here?" Annie asked looking back at the photograph. It looked exactly like the Mitchell they all knew and loved.

"It couldn't have been too long before…he changed. He had to of been 18 because he was 18 when it happened he was really just a kid ya know?" A pained looked graced Nina's features, George tilted his head. They all knew Nina didn't really like Mitchell it was no secret after all. But she didn't hate him. Though she never knew his story really. Hearing that he had been so young when he had turned looked like it was ripping her heart out. George had known his wife for a good while and he had worked with her on the floor and in the hospital while one is great at hiding their emotions…it's almost like code the littlest twitch of the eye or the mouth depending on the nurse. But it also depended on the nurses soft spot. For Nina, though it was more and more becoming children especially now since she had had their beautiful daughter…Nina had always had a soft spot for humanity. She never minded the race color or religion sexuality. None of it. Because she was a good nurse and all good nurses know that none of that matters when some one is laying on the gurney needing your help…all of that fades away and they become some ones brother sister wife husband parent friend when that fades away they become a beating heart needing your help and you are the key that keeps that heart from stopping.

Nina had never been able to see Mitchell as human…yes the shape of one and sometimes the kindness. He had always come off as strange to her. But once she had turned and could take him in from a supernatural standpoint…he had no heartbeat. No pulse. His flesh was frozen like stone. Eyes of a demon sometimes. She just could not classify him as human and then the Box car 20 happened after that she couldn't even bare his existence. She had wanted him gone. Not exactly dead. But gone. Locked up maybe for eternity but not dead.

But seeing this…seeing the young man standing there in the photograph…She was taken aback. Because he was human in this. He had a heartbeat and a pulse. Dreams and ambitions. This Mitchell would never dream of committing the box car 20 massacre. His flesh had been warm. His eyes were human and they showed life. This Mitchell in the photograph she could classify as human. Though the more she thought about it she wondered if he always had been? Human with a monster inside…a monster like herself…but he had accepted his fully and he had let it become a part of him but the human side even after a 100 years was still there? Was it possible?

"Can I rent-a-ghost it? PLEASE?" Annie asked breaking their silence." George looked at her with a 'are you mad' look.

"We could see if they have post card copies in the gift shop…or maybe ask the curator if they have copies."

"Or I could rent-a-ghost it and copy it and return it?"

"Can I help you two?" Asked a man in a suit coming up to them. George looked up

"Um yes. I was wondering about this photograph of John Mitchell. You see he is my great grandfather and I was wondering if there was a way I could get a couple of copies of the photograph. Is there a copy of it on a post card in the gift shop?"

"Follow me please?" George looked at Nina and they shrugged at each other. However, it was strange saying such things about Mitchell. It wasn't long before the man in the suit lead them down a dim corridor. "I knew Mitchell we were more like acquaintance friends. I knew of you all because you know how word travels on the street. I always admired him for going clean like he did and trying to live normally. I myself have been trying to do so. I was even apart of his group to do such. When he passed I was in shock to say the least. He was a good man." He said un locking a door. They followed him walking down several book shelves of folders and piles of paper.

"Excuse me the group?" Annie asked confused.

"After Herrick died the first time Mitchell was the only one left who could take control of the Vampires…be their leader because he was the oldest and had enough management training persay. He knew so many things. He was powerful, believe, it or not he could have lived like a king and had this city beneath his thumb years and years ago. But he chose to go clean and to be human which is the most difficult thing in the world for a vampire not to drink blood. To say no to the incessant hunger. After Herrick died there were a lot of killings that he had to clean up he had to put a system of order back together and he decided that if the world of Vampires was to stay safe, all of us would have to go clean. So he began a group like Alcoholics Anonymous but for vampires. A lot of them were so good. Myself included."

"Were?" Nina asked softly with a cryptic look on her face.

"There was a night he had found a woman Dr. Taggart I believe was her name…I only found all of this out after the fact. He was going to leave management he just wanted to live and be human. He didn't want to be in management he didn't want the responsibility. And he had believed he had found love with her. That night however when he was going to make the announcement that he was leaving he had gathered us all up we were all having a lovely time. There had been a bomb hidden beneath the funeral home. Only a couple of us escaped. Mitchell was one of them. He was in so much shock…he loved humanity and he wanted to keep them safe from vampires…he always had…he felt betrayed. I only know this because I over heard him and Daisy talking one night. He was righteously angry. I think his anger coupled with the hunger he had been denying for so many years just took over and he followed Daisy against his own best judgement. He became the Mitchell everyone feared and admired the one he himself hated and they together did the box car 20 massacre. It wasn't until later that he found out that his girlfriend had been the leader of the bombing of the funeral home. Which killed at least 50 vampires."

"What?" Nina asked with her eyes flaring open searching her memory for any remembrance of anything happening to a funeral home and she remembered a blurb but nothing more and she had even thought it was a little comical as a nurse.

"See I know you guys thought he was a monster for committing the crime. He did too. But he had lost control. I know you guys never thought about him keeping himself in control or how hard it was for him day in and out. No one does, unless you are a vampire. But those he had cared for had been killed by those he protected those he had defended for a 100 years if not more. Yes, the box car 20 was a massacre. But there was another massacre that no one ever heard about. Lives were taken on both sides. He sent you guys away to keep you safe. Because you all three of you and the baby were his family. He couldn't take anymore loss he didn't want anything to happen to you and he also wanted to protect you from himself." Tears were running down Nina and Annie's face. George had the saddest look on his face. The man said as he looked through a folder box of plastic sheets and paper. "I do have one question that has bothered me about all of this though." George looked up. "I know you killed him George. Everyone does…but I know he was your best friend…what happened?"

"He asked me to"

"Asked?" The man stated as he looked a paper in plastic before sliding it back down into the folder box and putting it on to the shelf and scanning down a few folder boxes before pulling out another.

"He came to me in the midst of being hunted by everyone including the elders the girls were there he was so upset he took a stake out of his jacket and begged me to kill him. I told him no. We told him there was another way. That we could leave the country and go south or something. Anything…just not that. He actually even begged me from his knees with tears in his eyes. Then one of the elders showed up. And he told us how it was going to be. How Mitchell would essentially become his bitch and us his dogs. I couldn't bear to let that happen to Mitchell and so I killed him. He turned to ash with a smile on his face."

"So there was nothing out of anger?"

"What?! NO! If anything I was fighting for him to live. We were begging him that there was another way a different way. I think he was almost convinced and then the elder showed up." George growled slightly offended as he watched the man go through yet another box folder. He put it back on the shelf and pulled out another one. He skimmed through some papers and pulled out a plastic slip with paper in it. He smiled as he looked at it.

"Forgive me you know how our kind's are not friendly with one another and how you four living together was a bit strange…but he was happy. I'm not happy he is gone. I'm not happy about it at all but I am happy that he went somewhat peacefully. Here is the original." He said handing it to George who took it slowly with a gentle grip afraid that the delicate paper in the plastic would turn to ash just as his friend had. He slowly realized though that it was a tin type. He was slightly grateful. It would take something quiet hefty to get rid of this.

"Can we keep it?" Annie asked fervently wanting to hold the tin type as close to her heart as humanly possible.

"No I'm afraid not but I am happy to make copies for you. Detailed good ones. It is the last I can do for someone who was once so kind to me."

"It would be much appreciated." Nina said looking up from leaning against George's shoulder with smile and tears brimming her eyes just barely. Annie nodded as the tears streamed down her face.

"We never thought anything like this of him existed. Since you know vampires can't be seen on film. We never dreamed it." Annie said clenching her hands around then ends of her sweater and wiping away her tears.

"Mitchell wasn't that old. I mean to mere mortals yes he was very old. But in our world yes he was old but not that old. The Elders you have to remember are at least a thousand years old. He was only 118 years old Tin Types by the time this was taken were easily accessible and were getting ready to phase out if I'm not mistaken."

"Something we take for granted in this day and age. We just pull out our phones and snap! There's a photo." George said trying to lighten the air. The man in the suit smiled and they followed him over to a scanner where he proceeded in scanning the photograph and printing it out on to photo paper. He also copied the image to a disk. He handed it all to George in a largish orange envelope with a golden clasp keeping the flap on the back of the envelope in place. George took it gently. All three of the house mates were quiet. The baby was even quiet. The man in the suit smiled gently. They all followed him quietly back out to the museum and they all under no verbal confirmation left silently.

The envelope was placed on the living room coffee table. Annie began making pot after pot of tea. They had all been overjoyed that afternoon by seeing their friend's image again. Annie's heart did a somersault. She was overcome at seeing her lover's face again but at the same time she just…she was so heartbroken that he was gone now…she almost couldn't bear the thought of what was laying on the living room coffee table. All she could think to do was make tea's and coffees. It's all she could think of.

She had wanted Mitchell to rot for his crime. Yes, it was true. The very human part of her had wanted that. She knew that he had been a killer most of his life. Most if not all of her 'living' life. She smirked to think about her living life how oblivious she was…she just wanted to be happy and be a good wife and have nice things…like all of the other girls. Though now when she was in a comical mood…even before Mitchell had been turned to dust. She had wondered about the many times they may have crossed paths and not even known. Maybe she had been laughing with Owen with Owens arm around her and he had been smoking outside of a pub or something. Maybe he was walking home late night laughing with his next dinner date…she somewhat shivered at that thought still…while she and Owen too walked home from a night at the club.

Annie had wanted him to pay for his crimes…she had been trying to understand him and his reality since they had met and she had gotten to know him. She loved him. He had told her that he had buried that part of himself. She understood that. She knew that. She hadn't really met…the dark side of Mitchell so to say. She knew it existed but…it seemed as if it had existed somewhere in the far off past. In a time where she didn't exist. She had never had to see or face the Mitchell that was a killer. She didn't know how to react to it. All she could think of was the humanity of it. She had never thought of it as him losing himself. She had never thought of it as revenge. She had never tried to understand…as she had tried to process that Mitchell her John Mitchell had done the box car 20 massacre.

Just the processing alone…that he had done the box car 20 massacre was hard to do. But to also process that it was his darkness taking hold of him…that it wasn't really HIM…that was something else to process. For him to tell her as he had that day in the jail cell that, that creature was gone…she couldn't believe him it was the scariest thing she'd ever conceived mentally. Someone she knew committing such an unconceivable crime. At the time she hadn't thought of it being the Vampire …whatever it was…inside of him taking over. She hadn't thought to process that it was him losing control.

It was actually something none of them had processed. Not Nina. Not George. Not Annie. That Mitchell was so good at keeping himself in control. That he could ignore all the temptations in the book. Most of the time they forgot he was a Vampire…well not really but there was never any sign of it outside of his cold skin and when he walked past a mirror or when they tried to take pictures. He was just Mitchell. They had gotten used to other Vampires talking like Mitchell was some sort of big hero/murderer. They would laugh it off later at home that night in some way or form. Mitchell was none of those things why would they say such? It was something that Mitchell had always kept quiet. Sometimes it would surface…when he was on edge you could see something amiss and the next day he was fine. He would keep all vampire things to himself…they had learned that's just how vampires are. So that's how they left it that was how things were. They never really realized the magnitude…to which Mitchell worked to keep himself or the world in which he was a part of…in control and non-existent to those he cared about. The closest they had ever come to seeing it was the day after the boxcar 20 massacre…it was something George and Annie never addressed but it was something they both now understood. Mitchell had been blood drunk. It hadn't been him. Not the him they knew…it had been the other him. And in truth it scared the living hell out of both of them. But they had let it slide once he was 'sober' again.

None of them had ever thought about him being a young boy back in the late 1800's early 1900's and he had never mentioned it. Not really. He always spoke of the things that were relevant to them and their history. They never had asked him about his family either. They never asked him if he had been married or what he had left behind, yet he had known their stories from beginning to end. He knew their conditions and he accepted them he helped them through yet…they 'knew' what his was but they never saw it and they never physically helped him through…even though he couldn't hurt them he threw them out of the house that day because he didn't want them to see his darkness.

Only now could Annie see this with clarity. Only now could Annie truly say she loved Mitchell because she understood now. But HOW for the love of god was that even fair to say? She didn't understand how she could have been so blind to the man she loved. Over and over again that day he had said to her that she didn't understand what she was doing...and he had done the one thing she had asked him to even though he knew it would destroy everything. He did it because he loved her. Even that night…before…George killed him…he had said you don't know what you are doing. In all truth she still didn't understand and she knew that George and Nina didn't either….and she wanted to more than anything. She wanted to more than anything.

Annie had not forgiven him for the Boxcar 20 massacre. No. Many people had lost their lives. But other lives the world had never known about and never would had been taken too…and that broke her heart just as much. It didn't justify Mitchell no it just made Taggart worse. None of it was justified. No but what she did now understand was that Mitchell was in control of himself especially with her and George by his side. That he indeed was no longer that man. But that man…that man that he had been could indeed come back and do monstrous things. It was a part of him that he could control…and that like they did sometimes he too needed help doing that.

The three house mates sat on the couch next to one another with a baby monitor on the edge of the coffee table. They all three stared at the envelope before them. None spoke. Even the house it's self was quiet for once as if it understood the tension. Annie wanted to reach for the envelope but she didn't want to invade upon George and she was getting antsy. She could only wonder why Nina was here on the couch with them. Maybe it was because of George. She didn't know.

"Oh for Godsake you two!" Nina said picking up the envelope. "It's just a photo of Mitchell." Both George and Annie looked at Nina trying to hide their shock their silence…it was almost like she was raping the silence. She opened the envelope and handed them each a copy of the photo and put the envelope back on to the table and went up to check on the baby who was beginning to stir. Annie and George just looked at each other.

A week later.

Annie walked into the kitchen where Nina was sitting at the table with a cup of morning tea.

"Nina are you doing anything today?"

"No why?" She asked as Annie took a seat at the table.

" I need your help with something personal." Nina just raised her eyebrow at the ghost.

An hour and a half later Nina and Annie were in a local department store Annie had said she used to frequent in the past. It was full of odd items from all over the world. Very colorful with elegance and eccentrics all combined and somehow it was amazing. They were looking for a photo frame. No doubt Nina knew what for…but neither of them were saying what it was for. Annie had her looking at different frames. It was about thirty minutes later that she settled on a mahogany frame with a parchment looking matte within. No it didn't match his outwardly appearance that she remembered and he would laugh if he saw it. But it matched the photo flawlessly and she wanted to give him some sort of classiness. It was sort of an I'm sorry though she knew it meant nothing…it felt good to her. Nina paid for it and she continued with her errands as Annie rent-a-ghosted home with the frame.

She locked herself quietly into her room and locked the door. She unwrapped the frame and took it apart and she placed the photo in correctly and put it back together. She then placed it on a small table by her chair that she had collected earlier in the week. She then went to her dresser of odds and ends. She opened her top drawer. There they were.

Mitchell's gloves. There was almost never a day he didn't have them on. In fact she couldn't really remember a day he didn't have them on. When he had died and his body had turned to ash his clothing had been left behind and it had sat there on the floor for a couple of days before Nina did away with it. But Annie had stealthily made off with his gloves in the middle of the night the first night. She had to have something of his. These gloves…she could always feel his hands on her face. They still smelled like him putting them to her nose now. He had loved her so. Yes, she had been foolish. But she had loved him too. Shutting the drawer she went over and she curled up in her chair. She settled the gloves in front of the photograph.

"I know it doesn't matter now Mitchell, but I, your Anna Sawyer forgive you for the boxcar 20 not completely but I have accepted several things and have forgiven you."

~End~

AN: Hello! I hope you all enjoyed this. Please R&R and let me know. I wrote this in response to a photo I saw online about how Celene was better for Mitchell and the reasoning was because she accepted all of what Mitchell was human and Vampire. I think if Annie had known the whole story about the bombing and how betrayed Mitchell had felt and the anger I think she would have seen things differently. But that's just me!

Luca


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